2016 – Flood appeal raises over £62,000 Our Lake District Landscape Restoration Fund appeal following the devastation caused by Storm Desmond in December 2015 raises over £62,000. Expand Our Lake District Landscape Restoration Fund appeal following the devastation caused by Storm Desmond in December 2015 raises over £62,000. The money is spent on repairing flood damage to the landscape. We provided funding and support for seven footpath and footbridge repair projects, including a replacement bridge over the River Rothay at the Badger Bar at Rydal, (pictured above) a replacement bridge at Hoggs Earth, near Watendlath, a replacement bridge at Birks Mill, Sedbergh, and repairs to damaged footpath at White Moss Common, between Rydal and Grasmere. Read more
2018 - Climate change landscape stabilisation research at High Borrowdale Expand In extreme weather in winter, landslides continue to occur on the steep sides of the valley of our land at High Borrowdale and so, with the University of Cumbria, we are beginning work to experiment with different geotextiles to stabilise the soil. Read more
2016: The Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks are extended Expand Friends of the Lake District was set up in 1934 to campaign to create a national park to protect the Lake District. Almost two decades of tireless campaigning later, the Lake District National Park was created by government in 1951, and the Yorkshire Dales followed in 1953. In 2016, our long campaign to extend the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks to cover areas originally left out of the parks in 1951 came to fruition. The areas, to the north and west of the Yorkshire Dales and the east of the Lake District, covering the Howgill and Orton fells, and areas around Kirkby Lonsdale and Sizergh finally became part of the national parks on 1 August 2016, extending the parks by 188 square miles, meaning the parks now cover 1750 square miles of protected landscapes. We continue to work in the new extension areas to enhance the environment, improve life for communities living there and increase opportunities for the public to access the landscape. Our new Westmorland Dales Hidden Landscapes project will form our work in the Asby and Orton area. To see detailed maps of the Lake District National Park extension areas visit the Government's website here and the Yorkshire Dales National Park extension areas here. Read more about the Yorkshire Dales National Park extension areas on their website here.
2009 - Natural England consultation to extend the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks Expand Following our campaign, on 16 December 2009 Natural England launched the public consultation on proposals to extend the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks.
2001-07 - £140,000 support for Fix the Fells upland footpath repair Expand We support fledgling upland footpath repair project Fix the Fells, with over £140,000 in grants, enabling the project to claim another £280,000 in match funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Today we still sit on the steering group for Fix the Fells, and support it though our Landscape Gifts, and with practical volunteer work at Fell Care Days.
2005 – ‘Cumbria’s Forgotten Landscapes’ published, campaign to extend the parks begins Expand ‘Cumbria’s Forgotten Landscapes’ - our report of the National Park Boundary Review Project was published, campaigning for extensions to the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks. The boundaries were finally extended in 2016!
2005 - Winash Wind Farm Expand Friends of the Lake District successfully campaigned against the development of a new wind farm at Winash.
1993 - Mike's Wood, Staveley planted Expand We plant a new native woodland on fields near Staveley to celebrate the work of our lead officer Mike Houston. 25 years later the new Mike's Wood is well established. Read more
1992 - Friends support Haverigg Wind Farm Expand Friends support Haverigg wind farm on the site of a disused airfield north of Millowm, outside the national park.
1982 - Our grant restores Dorothy Wordsworth's garden at Dove Cottage Expand A Friends of the Lake District grant helps restore Dorothy Wordsworth's old garden at Dove Cottage, Grasmere.
1980 - The first Friends annual dry stone walling competition Expand We held our first dry stone walling competition, now held annually each May, to keep alive the traditional skills that maintain our special landscapes.
1980s - Campaigning against raising the water level at Wastwater and Ennerdale Expand We successfully campaigned against raising the water level at Wastwater and Ennerdale to provide water for the nuclear power station at Sellafield, which would have permanently damaged the landscape and nature of the lakes.
1977 - The first Friends Annual Hedgelaying Competition Expand We established our annual hedging competition, to encourage more people to take up these traditional skills that maintain our beautiful landscapes.
1964 - Growing concern about traffic in the Lake District Expand Friends publish a booklet 'Traffic in the Lake District' promoting traffic management as opposed to new roads and wholesale widening and straightening.
1960 - Power boating threat to the lakes Expand Power boating on the lakes is a growing threat to the 'scenic beauty, peace and quiet' of the National Park. Friends lobbied for powers to control the use of motor-boats on some lakes.
1956 - Rusland Beeches saved Expand In 1956 the Friends take on a 50-year lease to protect the Rusland Beeches from being felled by the Forestry Commission.
1954 - the Yorkshire Dales National Park created Expand Friends of the Lake District played a leading role in campaigning for the creation of national parks. The Yorkshire Dales National Park was created in 1954 - parts of the park around Sedbergh are in Cumbria.
1951 - the Lake District National Park is created Expand Our campaigning helped lead to the creation of the Lake District National Park, one of the first national parks in the country.
1949 - a conference to lobby for underground power lines in the Lake District Expand Friends of the Lake District hosts a conference in which the Lake District planning authorities agree to the principle that all power lines should be placed underground except where there was no harm to the landscape. Our campaigning led to the agreement that means many power lines in national parks and AONBs all over the country are and continue to be put underground.
1943 - Hobcarton Crag, our first environmental grant Expand We gave our first major grant to buy Hobcarton Crag, near Grisedale Pike, Whinlatter, and donated it to the National Trust. Today we have supported over 600 projects with grants across Cumbria totalling over £800,000 investment in the landscape.
1940 - Campaigning for a National Park in Cumbria Expand All through the 1930s and 40s Friends of the Lake District campaigned to create a national park in Cumbria.
1937 - Lake District Farm Estates formed to protect culture and traditions of hill farming Expand Friends formed Lake District Farm Estates to buy hill farms to protect and maintain the culture and traditions of hill farming, eventually owning 17 farms. All the farms were finally given to the National Trust in the 1970s.
1935 - the first major campaign, afforestation Expand All through the 30s the Friends campaigned against large scale land acquisitions and planting of acres of commercial spruce in Cumbria by the Forestry Commission.The first major Forestry Commission purchases in the Lake District were near Whinlatter in 1919 and 5000 acres in Ennerdale in 1925-6. By the end of 1933 the Forestry Commission had planted nearly 1,250,000 larch and over 5,000,000 spruce trees in the Lake District.Today we work with the Forestry Commission to replace spruce plantations with native trees, creating better habitats for wildlife, protection from erosion, and maintaining the correct ph level of the soil.
1934 - Friends of the Lake District Founded Expand Set up to campaign to create a national park to protect the Lake District landscape for future generations, Friends of the Lake District was launched at a public rally in Fitz Park, Keswick in 1934.
2012 - National park extensions campaign intensifies Expand Our long-running campaign to see the 'forgotten landscapes' between the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks protected, by including them in the extended national parks, intensifies.
2016 - Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks Extended Expand We celebrated the extension to the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales national park boundaries on August 1 2016. Our campaigning work was instrumental in seeing the park extensions agreed and in promoting the importance of national park status for our most treasured landscapes. Read more
2011 - Fell Care Days start Expand Friends of the Lake District hold their very first ‘Fell Care Day’ at Hellvelyn. 168 volunteers come together to learn about the upland environment and carry out practical conservation tasks to help protect it. This becomes a successful project which continues to the present day.
2013 - Zip Wire Development, Honister Expand Friends of the Lake District successfully challenges a planning application to have a zip wire development at Honister.
2013 - new upland hay meadow planted Expand At a time when England has lost 97% of its hay meadows, Friends of the Lake District plant a new hay meadow at High Borrowdale, introducing a wave of beautiful colour into the landscape in summer, and creating an important habitat for many plant and insect species.
2014 - Leaders Landscape Training begins Expand Friends of the Lake District hold five ‘Leaders Landscape Training’ sessions working with 47 outdoor practitioners. The aim of the training helps practitioners deepen their understanding of the variety and importance of Cumbria’s upland ecology and to have a clearer understanding of some of the issues and pressures of outdoor users on our landscape, wildlife, habitats and communities.
2014 - the Helm woodland planting completed Expand Friends of the Lake District plant 1,500 trees at the Helm, near Kendal, to create a new woodland area for local residents and wildlife.
2014/15 - Gillside Wood planted Expand Friends of the Lake District plants 6,000 native trees, creating a brand new woodland at Gillside near Grasmere.
2019 - Westmorland Dales project begins Expand We receive Heritage Lottery funding and the go-ahead for 'Westmorland Dales Hidden Landscapes' project. The project covers an area of over 200 sq km, forming part of the newly extended Yorkshire Dales National Park. The total value of the scheme is estimated at £3.45m, with £2.27m from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and £1.18m match funding in cash and volunteer time. 21 projects will now be delivered over four years by a partnership of organisations to unlock and reveal the hidden heritage of the Westmorland Dales.
2018 - Dark Skies Cumbria project launched Expand Our three year Dark Skies project aiming to secure 'Dark Sky Status' for the Lake District National Park begins.
2017 - Thirlmere saved from zip wire development Expand Our members and the public wrote over 3,000 letters to the planning authority in opposition to a proposal to put an attraction of eight zip wires across Thirlmere reservoir. We were delighted that this threat was seen off the application withdrawn.
2016 – No pylons in the Lake District Expand We instigated a major campaign to stop 24km of 50 metre tall pylons being built within the national park. Our members and the public wrote more than a thousand letters in protest, we generated extensive national press coverage and were delighted that National Grid amended its plan and confirmed that it would put new electricity lines underground through the western section of the Lake District National Park.
2016 – 5,200 native trees planted at High Borrowdale Expand Now within the extended Lake District National Park. High Borrowdale suffered numerous landslides during the storms of December 2015. Planted with hardy native tree varieties like alder, ask, oak, rowan, holly, hawthorn and willow to enhance habitats and landscape as well as help stabilise erosion.